High angle block plane - angle? width?

[dshaker]

I have had some success making wooden planes for my lutherie work. I'm currently working on some curly black walnut with one of my planes and it is obvious I need to make a high-angle version of my block plane to avoid tear-out.

Does anyone have any prejudices about either the ideal width or the ideal angle for a bevel-down high-angle block plane?

[charangohabsburg]

I'm currently working on some curly black walnut with one of my planes and it is obvious I need to make a high-angle version of my block plane to avoid tear-out.

Why not just get a second blade for your block plane (which I assume is bevel-up) and hone the bevel to 40° or even 50°.

I almost only use bevel-up planes (12° bed angle), one of the reasons for my preference for those being their versatility regarding cutting angle. My blades for the block plane are 25° and 35°. For planing more difficult grained wood I use y bevel-up smoothing plane with a 40° or 50° bevel blade. Pushing a high angle bevel blade in a small plane (=block plane) is not great fun (steeper cutting angles require greater force to push the plane, so a handle on the plane comes in handy).

If you still decide to make a dedicated high angle block plane I strongly recommend you to choose a relatively narrow blade in order to keep down the required force to push the plane.

[dshaker]

Good point on the plane width.

My wooden planes are bevel down with the chip-breaker positioned about a millimeter or less behind the edge. And the plane mouth about 0.25 millimeters from the edge on the other side. Perhaps I should just be using a scraper on wood this wonky.

[charangohabsburg]

Yes, of course you are right, most if not all wooden planes have the bevel down, I believe.

While I really like to use my scrapers I think I wouldn't use them to thickness a whole guitar back. A scraper plane might be another idea...
Or, if you can set back enough the chipbreaker you could use your existing plane using a blade with a back bevel honed to it. If the bed angle is, let's say 45°, you hone a small (1 mm broad is enough) 10° back bevel and you have a 55° cutting angle. If you still get tear-out you simply steepen the back bevel to 15°. 60° to 65° should be fine for even the most stubborn grain. Getting a steeper bevel angle is a very quick task, while getting it lower again takes a lot of time... so you might proceed in smaller angle increments than 5° if you choose this route!

[Trevor Gore]

I have a bevel up block plane that I use for high angle work. Bed angle is the standard 20 degrees (low angle is typically 12 degrees). I find I need a cutting angle of at least 60 degrees to do useful high angle work. (So the blade bevel angle is 60-20=40 degrees, so not too difficult to get an edge). There's a story here about my Veritas high angle block plane. It works really well, but is about the largest plane you could expect to push with one hand, and your arm would be falling off by the time you'd finished thicknessing a curly hardwood plate, if this was the only tool you used.

One of my favorite tools is the high angle #6 that I made by tilting up the frog of a standard #6, Fig. 4-12 in the white book. If you want to do serious high angle work a 5, 5 1/2 or 6 is the size of plane to use because you need to be able to lean into it.

I have a HNT Gordon wooden high angle, bevel down smoothing plane, 60 degree bed angle. It can be used single handed, but only for very light finishing cuts. It can also be used bevel up, too, so a cutting angle of ~90 degrees and it makes a useful scraper plane. The palm smoother would be a better size for single handed work.

And just for completeness, here's a little plane I made specifically for leveling purfling (45 degree bed).

Purfling Plane.jpg (79.65 KiB) Viewed 6581 times

[Kim]

Topic moved to main forum by admin.

Cheers

Kim

[Kamusur]

Some good solutions from Marcus and Trevor, and all that i can add is perhaps to check out Derek Cohens' sight here at http://www.inthewoodshop.com he's pretty much a go to man and is as knowledgeable about planes as anyone and he has also posted many reviews and tutes on sharpening & uses etc.

Steve